Posted on 05/03/2016 9:32:30 PM PDT by Trumpinator
The 31-year-old Keating attended the Naval Academy before becoming a Navy Seal based out of Coronado, California
Keating was the grandson of Charles Keating, Jr., the Arizona financier at the center of the 1989 savings and loan scandal, which led to five U.S. Senators being accused of corruption. The senators allegedly involved were dubbed 'The Keating Five.'
Keating was advising Peshmerga forces but was less than 2 miles behind the front lines in the town of Tel Askuf, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said in a statement. A defense official told Fox News the he was killed by small arms fire, likely from an AK-47 rifle.
"The Peshmerga were trying to hold the line, but Navy SEALS at least 20 came in and pounded the s--- out of ISIS," military trainer Matthew VanDyke told Fox News, saying that "scores" of Islamic State militants died. VanDyke and three U.S. veterans were training Assyrian Christian forces battling ISIS in the region.
"ISIS kept sending in suicide bombers, SEALs pounded them and the [U.S.] airstrikes did a lot to help. Bullets flying everywhere, machine gun fire from ISIS, really intense firefight," VanDyke added. He said three Christian fighters and several Peshmerga were also hurt.
Navy SEALs joined the fight roughly an hour after it started, "heroically" beating back ISIS, according to VanDyke. He said the SEALs kept fighting until ammunition ran low.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
May I ask why no air cover? Why no Warthog overhead?
bullets flying everywhere, machine gun fire from ISIS, really intense firefight...
I would cry like a baby and need new clothes.
Brave men.
i dont know anything about the military, but why DID ISIS even get this close when the dont have ONE plane?
you’re right, where was insane air support. 20 doesn’t sound like a large number.
the 20 i mentioned was from another article referring to bombs or sorties, i forget sorry
God bless all of these brave men and women that do their part to keep us safe.
I know —————— Why are we fighting with one hand behind our backs?
Rest in Peace, Troop.
The nation owes you and your brothers more than it can ever pay.
Only God can cover that check.
He was from Arizona. It would be a very sad irony if his congressional nomination to Annapolis came from McCain who had his early flirtations with the ‘Syrian rebels.’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-serviceman-killed-by-enemy-fire-in-northern-iraq/2016/05/03/f325cc2c-2eff-4450-8741-79e1eab2f2ce_story.html
Mortar rounds and artillery began hitting front lines near Teleskof, a largely Christian town, about 4 a.m., according to Kurdish officers and members of the Assyrian Christian militia that hold the ground there.
Its inhabitants, speakers of ancient Aramaic, fled in August 2014 when the town was overrun by Islamic State forces, who burned and desecrated its churches. It was retaken by Kurdish forces the same month, and some residents had since returned.
But after bombarding the area Tuesday, the militants launched a multi-pronged attack on Teleskof about 5:30 a.m. from several directions, using hundreds of fighters, commanders said.
Maj. Gen. Azad Jalil, a peshmerga officer, said Islamic State forces breached Kurdish front lines with more than 10 car bombs, also using bulldozers to push through.
The peshmerga then made a tactical retreat to reorganize their forces, he said. Islamic State militants overran the town.
Brig. Gen. Bahnam Aboush, a fighter with the largely Christian militia based in the town and known as the Nineveh Plain Protection Units, said his men tried to hold their ground but were overwhelmed.
We tried to fight them, but we couldnt due [to] our limited capabilities, he said. We have only some old rifles we bought from our own money.
He said he was near the attack that mortally wounded the Navy SEAL, when a U.S. military contingent came to assist the struggling militia forces.
American Special Forces came to rescue us in four vehicles, he said. They opened the way for us to retreat, then one of their vehicles was hit.
The general added that when he entered Teleskof after the assault, he saw the U.S. military vehicle abandoned with one of the doors destroyed by an explosion. He was not certain how the SEAL died.
I think an RPG shot the car, he said. Then maybe a sniper shot the person inside.
Matthew VanDyke, an American fighting alongside the Nineveh Plains Protection Units, who also was nearby, said the SEAL was hit by a sniper shot. A U.S. military official confirmed that the death was caused by small-arms fire. VanDyke said that about 20 Navy SEALS arrived not long after the town was lost about 6 a.m., traveling a few vehicles behind peshmerga forces in a convoy.
They went straight into the fight, he said. They lined up on the edge of the town, and they were unloading on ISIS.
The SEALs were a few vehicles behind the peshmerga forces as they tried to retake the town, when a car bomb struck the front of the convoy, VanDyke said. Every time wed try to advance, theyd send car bombs, he said. It was during that encounter that the SEAL was killed, he said.
The SEALs kept fighting but ran low on ammunition and pulled out as hundreds of peshmerga reinforcements arrived, VanDyke said. The SEALS were involved in direct action. Thats for sure.
In Washington, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said: Todays incident is a vivid reminder of the risk our service members are taking, and three of them now have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. He stressed that the U.S. mission in Iraq is to support Iraqi forces on the ground that are taking the fight to the Islamic State and that Iraqi forces must fight for their own country.
Earnest said that U.S. troops cannot act as a substitute for Iraqi forces.
A U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to comment candidly, said U.S. military leaders were still assessing what happened. F-15 fighter jets hit about 20 Islamic State targets in an effort to repel the attack, the official said.
The defense official said U.S. operational reporting suggests the SEALs already were at the scene of the attack when it began and got caught up in this, but he added that that was not yet clear. The SEALs have been working with the peshmerga for months in northern Iraq, he added.
A counteroffensive had retaken the town by late afternoon Tuesday.
The coalition had the key role in retaking the village, Jalil said. The Islamic State launched the attack, he said, because it is under pressure south of Mosul near Makhmour, where Iraqi forces, with the help of U.S. artillery and air power, have managed to make inching gains.
Its showing how desperate and how broken they are, he said. There are now more than 100 dead bodies of them in the village, plus they lost many vehicles, he said.
Jabbar Yawar, a spokesman for the Kurdish peshmerga, said that a number of Kurdish fighters died in the attack but that he could not disclose how many.
He died defending ancient Assyrian Christians on their Holy Easter day. God bless his soul and comfort his family.
RIP.
Interesting
WHERE WAS THE FREAKING AIR SUPPORT?!
Grandson of McCain’s banking buddy gives his life for his country. I salute him.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen
Condolences to family and friends of Charlie Keating. R.I.P., sir.
love
That carter legacy is still costing lives.. And here we go, Nixon- Carter 2.0. Technically it was Ford, but I remember.
Where the hell was air support? There should have been F-15s,F-16s, and A-10s pummeling ISIS relentlessly.
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